Wehrman Schoolhouse

So it's been on my mind a lot lately that Hunter is old enough now that learning can/should occur more than just naturally throughout the day. He is old enough now that we can sit down for a period of time each day and play educational games (cuz I'm sneaky like that.) Though it's been on my mind a lot, it did take me a while to finally do something about it. But, with my educational background (the little bit that I do have,) help from my sister, and help from google, we had our first "school" session yesterday. And we both had so much fun!

Eventually I want to do preschool curriculum with a theme each week and everything, but for now we started with simple, non themed games.

I made a puzzle of a hat, and he loved it. We did it a few times, and each time he got better and better. The first time he completed it and saw the finished product, he got really excited and ran and got his hat that nana made him. He knows the letter A and pointed it out as soon as he saw it, and we're working on H so he can learn his whole name, so I thought doing 'HAT' was appropriate.

Next, I made color cards. I've started with 4 colors and will add more as he learns them. I made 2 sets of each color, and layed one set out in front of him. Then I picked up one of my cards, and asked him to place it ON TOP of his match. (We're working on concepts too.) He liked that game, and then since his monster trucks were sitting next to us on the table, we played another matching game. I picked up a truck and he had to place it on the correct card. He L - O - V - E - D that game because it incorporated his trucks. Here's a picture (but please ignore the ghetto coffee table)...

Our final game was a number game.

Each card has circles on one side and the corresponding number on the other. We either do all numbers, or all circles, and again, he has to match them. Each time we play the game, he gets faster and faster. And he can count to 3 by himself some of the time. He also recognizes numbers 1-3. Pretty soon I'm going to have to add 6-10! Then as he gets older, he will have to match the 3 with the 3 circles.

So those were our games of the day. We played them for 45 minutes straight yesterday, and the only reason we stopped was because daddy got home and Monster Jam came on. (This child LOVES Monster Jam!)

We're going to play them again today, and I also have a snowman craft for us. (Hey, just because AZ doesn't provide the opportunity to build snowmen doesn't mean he shouldn't know about the existence of them!)

My plan is to continue blogging about our school sessions. I hope you enjoy taking the journey with us. :)

This and That

So here I sit at 11:40 pm (pretty much) wide awake thanks to my accidental 2 hour nap on the couch today. (Don't worry, Hunter was napping too.)

I have gotten some adorable pictures of Hunter the last couple days. I guess maybe knowing I have a blog to put them on motivates me to take more. Whatever the reason, I'm sure the grandparents don't mind. I don't remember if I mentioned before, but his new word is NO. It's so cute when he's saying it and not fighting me for something, yet so irritating when he is. But, his little voice is so sweet saying it. Our conversations all day went like this, "No," "Yes," "No," "Yes," "No," "Yes," "No." Over and over and over again. He likes that he has a new word.

He also loves to talk on the phone, even if what he's talking on isn't actually a telephone. Here, he's using his monitor, and it makes it look like he's on one of the old cord phones that you had to hold if you wanted to go somewhere while talking.

Tonight, I started to sing finger plays with him. He really liked The Itsy Bitsy Spider, and the child is so smart, I'm sure he'll be singing along in no time.

On a not-so-good note, I messed up my ankle this weekend, and then ran 5 miles on it yesterday. I thought I'd be ok, but apparently not. I think it's just something with my tendon, so I'm going to take it really easy this week, but I just really hope it heals. I bought an ace bandage today that I'm going to keep on it too. I don't care what is wrong with me come race day, I AM RUNNING THAT RACE IF IT KILLS ME. So really, it would be in my ankle's best interest to heal.

In other news, I know I already posted a pic of our new house in AZ, but we OFFICIALLY got accepted today to rent it. I am so excited I've already started packing and we still have 8 weeks to go! I just can't wait. I love my friends and church family here, but just as God did the necessary preparing of my heart when we left NC, He's doing so again. And I don't know that I even realized that until now. Of course there are people I am going to miss. There are people I still miss from NC. But God has other things for us elsewhere, and I'm excited to start the next chapter in our life. (Sorry to be so cliché!) And He knows, because I get so attached to friends, He has to prepare my heart so I'll be ok with leaving. And He is. I am very excited for the opportunity to live in AZ, even if only for a short while. I am blessed with the opportunity to live all over the US. I love living in different places, because when Greg and I finally settle down in the South, we know that's the best place for us, because we've lived in so many others!

Well, I am off to try to figure out how to import video on this thing. I took some adorable footage of Hunter performing most of his tricks tonight. I'll also leave you with a few more photos...

He's my stud muffin.